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2000 Cultural Capital
Celebrates a Very Long History

By

Ed Ward

Updated June 2, 2000 12:45 a.m. ET

Cracow, Poland

T he first thing I learned here was that you can buy cute Jews. I'd arrived, put my stuff down and headed straight for the city center, which has possibly the largest market square in Europe. In its center is the mammoth Cloth Hall, a long, narrow building with booth after booth selling souvenirs. Among the souvenirs were dozens of different hand-carved wooden statuettes of long-faced, bearded, sad-eyed, black-clad men with white shawls, holding hurdy-gurdies, violins, scrolls or a book with a Star of David...